Spring 2012 Music Preview

From Madge to Minaj, these are the albums Dose.ca is looking forward to in early 2012.

Photograph by: Getty Images
, Getty Images

While you finish compiling your list of the top records of 2011, let's get a head start on the new year's best-of rankings. The first few months of 2012 promise legendary comebacks, potential pop blockbusters and the debut disc from one of the Internet's most buzzed-about personalities. Here's what Dose.ca will be watching for.

Nicki Minaj, Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded (Feb. 14)

She was named Billboard's Rising Star of 2011 (and had been seemingly ubiquitous as hip-hop's go-to very-special-guest-star for a good year before that), but 2012 is primed to be another year of Nicki Minaj. If we're giving credit where it's due, though, the year ahead may be more about Roman Zolanski, the Pink Friday MC's psychopathic male alter-ego. (For Mr. Zolanski's past appearances, please refer to Pink Friday track "Roman's Revenge" where he (she?) out-skeezed featured artist Eminem and Minaj's ferocious few seconds on Kanye West's "Monster.") Minaj shared news of the record on the one-year anniversary of Pink Friday's release, later explaining the disc would be an all-new affair. (The Pink Friday title had previously caused some confusion online.) Soon after, a first single, "Roman in Moscow," was released. And for anyone who agreed with Billboard and Entertainment Weekly in thinking the crushworthy "Super Bass" was the best song of 2011, Roman would impolitely disagree. As Minaj bluntly points out on the hard-hitting track, there "ain't no motherf*cking bridge, b*tch/ Ain't no motherf*cking hook" on this one. Roman gnashes through his verses; the bubblegum of "Super Bass" would get ripped to shreds if he got anywhere near it. A Roman Reloaded tracklisting has yet to be revealed, and though Minaj seems to play better with others than just about anyone in the game (past collaborators include Drake, Lil Wayne, Madonna, Britney Spears), the AMA winner has hinted in past interviews that she hadn't been lining up anything much in the way of star power, leading us to wonder if the biggest features will be her ever-increasing cast of alter-egos. "I don't think I'm hitting up anybody for features for this sophomore album," she told MTV earlier this year, "but I never give away all my secrets."

Other releases that are "popping" out at us:

-Dev, The Night the Sun Came Up - Jan. 10

-Melanie Fiona, The MF Life - Feb. 7

-Estelle, All of Me - Feb. 28

-The Ting Tings, Sounds from Nowheresville - March 6

-Adam Lambert, Trespassing - March 20

-Willow Smith, So You Think You Know Me -April 3

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Kathleen Edwards, Voyageur - Jan. 17

Previews of Voyageur, Kathleen Edwards' follow-up to 2008's Polaris-nominated Asking For Flowers, have positioned the record as a re-invention for the singer-songwriter. And while album track "Change the Sheets" -- which was previewed in an album trailer released in late November -- suggests the musician hasn't exactly abandoned the observational twang she's developed over her last three discs, Voyageur has reportedly been a musical exploration of sorts. For one, Edwards co-produced the disc with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon -- her sometime tourmate, boyfriend and a guy who's topped countless Best of '11 lists these past few weeks off his Grammy-nominated self-titled album. “As a fan, I wanted to make sure (I helped) make this fourth record not a complete departure, yet definitely marking a new era in her songs,” Vernon said in a behind-the-scenes video about Voyageur. “She’s ready to step out of some of the boxes people placed her in, not necessarily the ones she placed herself in.” Vernon isn't the only collaborator involved, though -- something Edwards made a note of in a statement about the project. "For the first time, I was open to the idea of co-writing, and what had previously been an intensely private process became a challenge to see what would happen with an open mind to a different approach," she said. Featured artists are said to include musicians such as Norah Jones, Afie Jurvanen (Bahamas, Feist) and Bon Iver's Sean Carey, among others.

Other releases that'll make your heart bleed with Canadian pride and, possibly, maple syrup and whisky:

-John K. Samson (of The Weakerthans), Provincial - Jan. 24

-Islands, A Sleep & A Forgetting - Feb. 21

-Plants and Animals, The End of That - Feb. 28

-Said the Whale, Little Mountain - March 6

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Lana Del Rey, Born to Die - Jan. 14

She's got a Jan. 14 gig on Saturday Night Live, she's been featured in Rolling Stone and Q, and she's the sultry singer behind "Video Games" -- a song named the best of 2011 by The Guardian. Lana Del Rey, however, doesn't even have a record out. That of course changes Jan. 14, but her all-so-sudden rise to internet-fame has been the biggest headline concerning Del Rey since a DIY clip for "Video Games" began generating attention online this summer. Well, that and a disturbing amount of chatter attacking the 25-year-old's looks, suggesting her pout is as artificial and focus-group constructed as her backstory. (Raised in Lake Placid, NJ as Lizzy Grant, Del Rey has repeatedly told the media she struggled as a musician for seven years. When she posted a self-made video for "Video Games" -- a torch-song for every X-box widow -- the New York-based Del Rey's ambitions were reportedly modest. She expected her friends to see it. Instead, it went viral and led to a record deal.) The songs on Born to Die, Del Rey said in a statement, are "an homage to true love and a tribute to living life on the wild side." The cinematic video for the title track takes that mission statement seriously. Del Rey is styled to look like the second coming of Ann Margret -- albeit while wearing a fringed jacket that could've been swiped from Footloose's wardrobe department -- who joyrides with her All American boy-toy only to die in a fiery blaze. In other scenes, she's a deep-voiced goddess on a throne, flanked by two live tigers (a more literal symbol of that "wild side"). This one moody taste of the album would suggest there's something there to back up the buzz, though both haters and fangirls will have to wait for the full record to make up their minds.

Other releases from blog-worthy bands aiming to reclaim their buzz:

-Chairlift, Something - Jan. 24

-Die Antwoord, Ten$ion - Feb. 7

-Sleigh Bells, Reign of Terror - Feb. 14

-Tennis, Young and Old - Feb. 14

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The Shins, Port of Morrow (March - Date TBA)

When The Shins’ fourth full-length arrives in the spring, it'll have been eight years since the twee indie-pop of "New Slang" changed Natalie Portman's life, seven years since it was appropriate to make a Garden State-related Shins reference and five years since the Portland act's last effort, the Grammy-nominated Wincing the Night Away. Shins ringleader James Mercer has been active since then -- notably through his Broken Bells collaboration with acclaimed producer Danger Mouse -- though anticipation for the return of The Shins had been rising through 2011, as Mercer and his current touring line-up (which features Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer, among others) played a handful of shows through the year. During those dates, a sampling of Port of Morrow's album tracks were revealed (a full tracklisting was unveiled in December), though all the bootlegs you can dig up on YouTube probably don't give a proper clue of what the final product will sound like. Port of Morrow will mark the veteran act's first album away from Sub Pop (they'll release it through Columbia Records and Mercer's personal imprint Aural Apothecary), and according to reports, all 10 tracks were produced by Greg Kurstin -- whose CV is stacked with pop hits, many of which happen to feature Dose.ca office favourites including Kylie Minogue, Kelly Clarkson, Lily Allen, Sia, Ladyhawke and more.

Other releases from indie mainstays that will make you so excited you'll sprout an ironic moustache out of unbridled anticipation:

-Craig Finn (of The Holdsteady), Clear Heart Full Eyes - Jan. 24

-Nada Surf, The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy - Jan. 24

-Of Montreal, Paralytic Stalks - Feb. 7

-Andrew Bird, Break it Yourself - March 6

-Magnetic Fields, Love at the Bottom of the Sea - March 6

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Madonna, Untitled (March - Date TBA)

Since the early '80s Madonna has defined a certain brand of pop-music and pop-stardom, and while it's difficult to think of any other performer -- female or otherwise -- who's come close to being her better, the Top 40 landscape has changed significantly since her last album, 2008's Hard Candy. The electro-pop Madonna has revelled in -- and occasionally reinvented -- since the '80s is everywhere, and pop stars including Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj are building their own multi-discipline cults of personality that might one day rival Madonna's own. It'll be curious to see how Madonna's latest will fit in the dance-pop saturated landscape, but the once and possibly future queen of pop has scheduled an unusual launching pad for her 11th studio effort. February 5 she'll play the Super Bowl in a number that'll include new single, "Gimme All Your Luvin." An unpolished recording of the track -- which features rappers M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj -- leaked in November, upsetting the pop star, as her manager Guy Oseary Tweeted. "Madonna told me this morning 'my true fans wouldn't do this,'" said Oseary after the chirpy, Toni Basil-indebted single surfaced online. Since then, it was revealed Madonna's as-yet-untitled disc will be the first of a three-album deal with Interscope. (Madonna severed her long-standing relationship with Warner Music Group four years ago when she signed a 360 deal with Live Nation; Live Nation will share in the profits of the star's new record as part of the Interscope deal, according to Associated Press.) As for collaborators, long-time producer William Orbit is reportedly involved, as is French DJ Martin Solveig (the dude responsible for that Martina Sorbara hit "Hello"), and Madonna fan sites have suggested contributors could include everyone from the NPR-beloved singer-songwriter/master guitar-shredder St. Vincent to "Pursuit of Happiness" rapper Kid Cudi -- rumours we expect will be addressed long before the album's release date.

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